"For me the most helpful thing would be to find senior management. It's a great honour to be up against London's best," said Kirkwood, who launched a line of menswear shoes at the beginning of the London Collections: Men last week and who has plans up his sleeve to launch handbags in September.

So how did he go about impressing the judges for the prize?

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"This time I had to work out a way to be creative with the presentation - I didn't just want to put the shoes on the models' feet because naturally you want to look up at their face - before I'd always put them on a little plinth." The answer? Putting his shoes on the models' heads as the most elaborate of decorations on the most elaborate of hairstyles.

"I wanted to do something more visual than I had done before," said Kirkwood. Hear what else he has been up to and what else he has planned if he wins this year's award in the video below, plus go behind the scenes at his presentation in the gallery to the left.